1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a coin handling method and a device, and more particularly to a coin handling method and a device which can temporarily hold a plurality of coins and return the inserted coins when a return operation is performed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Automatic vending machines are generally provided with a coin handling device for accepting coins and dispensing change.
A conventional coin handling device identifies the inserted coins as authentic or counterfeit and denominations, stores the authentic coins in coin tubes corresponding to respective denominations, and dispenses the coins corresponding to an amount of change to be dispensed. According to the above structure, when the inserted coins are to be returned for some reason, the coins corresponding to the inserted coins are dispensed from the coin tubes. Therefore, the returned coins are the same denominations as those of the inserted coins but not the inserted coins.
Therefore, there are many crimes that counterfeit coins are put into an automatic vending machine and a refund operation is made to get authentic coins. To deal with such crimes, the inserted coins can be closely identified as authentic or counterfeit, but the authentic coins may be identified as counterfeit if they are damaged or contaminated by such close identification, and the use of the vending machines has become inconvenient.
In view of the above circumstances, to prevent the use of counterfeit coins and to secure the convenience, there are used coin handling devices which are provided with a temporarily holding mechanism (escrow mechanism) for temporarily holding (escrowing) the inserted coins and return the actually inserted coins when a refund operation is made.
As described above, there have been used the coin handling devices having the escrow mechanism lately. Meanwhile, the automatic vending machines and the like provided with the coin handling device are increasing to vend high-priced commodity products, and the coin handling device is desired to be able to hold temporarily a plurality of coins for the convenience of the automatic vending machines.
Besides, the coin handling devices having the escrow mechanism may have its operation jammed, an automatic change adjusting function (which keeps the number of coins dispensable as change at a constant level) disabled or the like by the temporarily held coins which are left as they are if the power is cut off due to a power failure or the like and turned on again.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a coin handling method and a device which can prevent functions from being degraded by adoption of an escrow mechanism in order to temporarily hold a plurality of inserted coins to provide convenience and to prevent counterfeit coins from being used and also to provide a normal operation even if any coins are temporarily held at the time when the power is turned on.
In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim 1 is a coin handling method which identifies authentic or counterfeit and denomination of inserted coins, has a temporarily holding mechanism for temporarily holding the identified coins of at least one denomination, accommodates a necessary number of coins from the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism according to an accommodation instruction, and returns the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism according to a return instruction, wherein:
the denominations and number of coins to be temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism are previously determined; and when coins of the predetermined denominations are inserted in the predetermined number, the inserted coins are returned without being temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism.
The invention of claim 2 is the invention of claim 1, wherein the number of coins temporarily held is determined arbitrarily within a range of the temporarily holdable number of coins in the temporarily holding mechanism.
The invention of claim 3 is the invention of claim 2, wherein if at least one of the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism is accommodated, coins of the pertinent denomination newly inserted within the range of the predetermined number of coins can be temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism.
The invention of claim 4 is a coin handling method which identifies authentic or counterfeit and denomination of inserted coins, has a temporarily holding mechanism for temporarily holding the identified coins of at least one denomination, accommodates a necessary number of coins from the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism according to an accommodation instruction, and returns the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism according to a return instruction, wherein:
when the accommodation instruction is given, the held coins are selectively sorted and accommodated into a coin box for recovering coins or a coin tube for accommodating coins to be dispensed.
The invention of claim 5 is the invention of claim 4, wherein the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism are sorted to the coin tube if the number of coins accommodated in the coin tube is less than an allowable number and sorted to the coin box if the number of coins accommodated in the coin tube is not less than the allowable number.
The invention of claim 6 is the invention of claim 5, wherein the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism are sorted to the coin tube if the number of coins accommodated in the coin tube is less than a predetermined number and sorted to the coin box if the number of coins accommodated in the coin tube is not less than the predetermined number.
The invention of claim 7 is the invention of claim 5, wherein the coins have a plurality of types in the same denomination; and
if the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism are those of predetermined types, they are sorted to the coin box regardless of the number of coins accommodated in the coin tube.
The invention of claim 8 is the invention of claim 4, wherein the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism are released and sorted one by one from the held state.
The invention of claim 9 is the invention of claim 4, wherein when the accommodation instruction is issued about some of the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism, the coins related to the accommodation instruction are accommodated and the other coins are returned.
The invention of claim 10 is the invention of claim 9, wherein the coins have a plurality of types in the same denomination; and
coins of predetermined types are accommodated with a high priority among the coins of the plurality of types.
The invention of claim 11 is a coin handling method which identifies authentic or counterfeit and denomination of inserted coins, has a temporarily holding mechanism for temporarily holding the identified coins of at least one denomination, accommodates a necessary number of coins from the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism according to an accommodation instruction, and returns the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism according to a return instruction, wherein
if a predetermined event takes place, an operation of releasing the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism is performed at least one time.
The invention of claim 12 is the invention of claim 11, wherein the event is an initializing process including a power turning-on time, and
the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism are guided to a coin box for recovering coins by the releasing operation at the initializing process.
The invention of claim 13 is the invention of claim 11, wherein the event is an inventory operation and guides the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism to a coin tube for accommodating coins to be dispensed by the releasing operation at the inventory operation.
The invention of claim 14 is the invention of claim 11, wherein the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism are released one by one by the releasing operation.
The invention of claim 15 is the invention of claim 11, wherein the releasing operation is performed regardless of the presence or absence of the held coins.
The invention of claim 16 is a coin handling device which identifies authentic or counterfeit and denomination of inserted coins, has a temporarily holding mechanism for temporarily holding the identified coins of at least one denomination, accommodates a necessary number of coins from the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism according to an accommodation instruction, and returns the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism according to a return instruction, comprising:
determining means for previously determining the denominations and number of coins to be temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism;
counting means for counting the number of coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism; and
control means which, when the count value by the counting means reaches the number determined by the determining means, returns the coins of the predetermined denomination inserted thereafter without temporarily holding in the temporarily holding mechanism.
The invention of claim 17 is the invention of claim 16, wherein the determining means can arbitrarily determine the number of coins to be held in the temporarily holding mechanism within a range of the temporarily holdable number of coins in the temporarily holding mechanism.
The invention of claim 18 is the invention of claim 16, wherein:
when at least one of the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism is accommodated, the counting means subtracts the number of accommodated coins; and
the control means temporarily holds newly inserted coins of the pertinent denomination in the temporarily holding mechanism until the count value by the counting means reaches the number determined by the determining means.
The invention of claim 19 is the invention of claim 16, wherein the control means comprises:
first control means for guiding the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism to a coin return passage;
second control means for guiding the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism to a coin tube; and
third control means for guiding the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism to a coin box; wherein:
when the count value by the counting means reaches the number of coins determined by the determining means and the return instruction is issued, the first control means is operated to guide the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism to the coin return passage, and when the accommodation instruction is issued, the second control means or the third control means is operated to guide the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism to the coin tube or the coin box.
The invention of claim 20 is the invention of claim 19, wherein:
the first control means includes:
first sorting means which is disposed downstream of the temporarily holding mechanism and sorts the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism to guide to the coin return passage or to the second control means and the third control means, and
a first solenoid for operating the first sorting means; and
the second control means and the third control means include:
second sorting means which is disposed between the first sorting means and the coin tube and guides the coins having passed through the first sorting means to the coin box or the coin tube, and
a second solenoid for operating the second sorting means.
The invention of claim 21 is A coin handling device which identifies authentic or counterfeit and denomination of inserted coins, has a temporarily holding mechanism for temporarily holding coins of at least one denomination, accommodates a necessary number of coins from the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism according to an accommodation instruction, and returns the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism according to a return instruction, comprising:
coin releasing means for releasing the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism upon receiving the accommodation instruction; and
coin sorting means for sorting the coins released from the coin releasing means to accommodate into a coin box for recovering coins or a coin tube for accommodating coins to be dispensed.
The invention of claim 22 is the invention of claim 21, wherein the coin sorting means sorts the coins released by the coin releasing means to the coin tube if the number of coins accommodated in the coin tube is less than a permissible number and sorts the coins released by the coin releasing means to the coin box if the number of coins accommodated in the coin tube is not less than the permissible number.
The invention of claim 23 is the invention of claim 21, wherein the coin sorting means sorts the coins released by the coin releasing means to the coin tube if the number of coins accommodated in the coin tube is less than a predetermined number and sorts the coins released by the coin releasing means to the coin box if the number of coins accommodated in the coin tube is not less than the predetermined number.
The invention of claim 24 is the invention of claim 22, wherein:
the coins have a plurality of types in the same denomination; and
the coin sorting means sorts the coins to the coin box regardless of the number of coins accommodated in the coin tube if the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism are those of predetermined types.
The invention of claim 25 is the invention of claim 21, wherein the coin releasing means releases the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism one by one.
The invention of claim 26 is the invention of claim 21, wherein the coin sorting means accommodates the coins related to the accommodation instruction into the coin tube or the coin box and returns the other coins if the accommodation instruction is issued about some of the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism.
The invention of claim 27 is the invention of claim 26, wherein:
the coins have a plurality of types in the same denomination; and
the coin sorting means accommodates the coins of a previously designated type into the coin tube or the coin box with a high priority among the coins of the plurality of types.
The invention of claim 28 is a coin handling device which identifies authentic or counterfeit and denomination of inserted coins, has a temporarily holding mechanism for temporarily holding coins of-at least one denomination, accommodates a necessary number of coins from the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism according to an accommodation instruction, and returns the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism according to a return instruction, comprising:
coin releasing means for releasing the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism; and
control means which, when a predetermined event takes place, makes the coin releasing means perform at least one operation of releasing the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism.
The invention of claim 29 is the invention of claim 28, further comprising first coin guiding means for guiding the coins released by the coin releasing means to the coin box for recovering coins, wherein the control means detects the performance of an initializing operation including a power turning-on time as an occurrence of the predetermined event, and performs the releasing operation by the coin releasing means and guides the coins released by the releasing operation to the coin box by the first guiding means.
The invention of claim 30 is the invention of claim 28, further comprising second coin guiding means for guiding the coins released by the coin releasing means to a coin tube for accommodating coins to be dispensed, wherein:
the control means detects an inventory operation as an occurrence of the predetermined event, performs a releasing operation by the coin releasing means, and guides the coins released by the releasing operation to the coin tube by the second guiding means.
The invention of claim 31 is the invention of claim 28, wherein the control means releases the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism one by one by the coin releasing means.
The invention of claim 32 is the invention of claim 28, wherein the control means makes the coin releasing means repeat the operation of releasing a maximum number of coins temporarily holdable in the temporarily holding mechanism regardless of the presence or absence of the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism.
The invention of claim 33 is the invention of claim 28, wherein the control means makes the coin releasing means perform a predetermined number of releasing operations regardless of the presence or absence of the coins temporarily held in the temporarily holding mechanism.
According to the present invention, to return the inserted coins when any coins are to be returned, it is configured so that the temporary holding number for temporarily holding the inserted coins can be determined arbitrarily, and the coins inserted not less than the determined number are returned. Therefore, the coin holding number can be determined according to the price of a commodity vended by the automatic vending machine or the like, and counterfeit coins can be prevented from being used without impairing the convenience of using authentic coins.
It is also configured to guide the coins temporarily held in the escrow passage to any of the coin tube, the return passage and the coin box passage depending on the states of the respective portions, so that the number of coins in the coin tube can be determined arbitrarily, and only the coins to be collected can be collected.
Besides, it is configured to operate so to guide the coins in the escrow passage to the coin box at the time when the power is turned on, so that inconvenience to the users can be prevented without suffering from illegal acquirement of any coins possibly remained in the escrow passage and excluding such coins from being dispensed as change.
And, efficiency of the inventory work can be improved by guiding the coins in the escrow passage to the coin tube at the inventory operation.